Our View: Cheers & Jeers

A look at the good and bad in the area this month:

Cheers: To good folks at Kingdom Builders Ministries who organized the annual Wood City Music Festival last week. It’s a positive event for our city, an excellent use of Veterans Park and draws visitors to our community. How they manage to put on such a great show, attract thousands of people, and not charge a dime for admission is amazing. Lee Harris, president of the group, also knows how to make a great cup of coffee at the group’s Common Ground Coffee Bar & Deli on Avenue C.

Jeers: To the city’s lack of diligence in getting CAT-7 back on the air. It was foolish to make the cable access channel go dark without a clear plan on how to start it back up in the new City Hall. More people rely on CAT-7 than the council realizes, we think, and it appears now there was no need to shut the station down at all, as CAT-7 could have continued to broadcast until the new space was ready. We hope these errors are not political payback for some of CAT-7 programming, especially “Harry’s Gang,” which had featured every candidate for city council and may have had an impact on the last election. That would just be wrong.

Cheers: To summer sports coaches. From soccer to lacrosse to swimming to baseball and more, these dedicated parents and other volunteers provide valuable sports activities to children all summer, usually for no remuneration. In fact, some coaches even dig into their own pockets to buy the proper equipment and to hold end-of-season parties. It’s people like these coaches that help make Carlton County such a great place to raise a family.

Cheers: To Cloquet city councilor Sheila Lamb, for staying strong to her conviction in raising awareness of human trafficking issues during the last council meeting. While we don’t necessarily agree that refusing a corporate donation to a city event is the best way to address the issue, Lamb certainly raised awareness that human trafficking increases during large construction projects like Line 3. People are more aware of the issue now, and we find that a positive development.

Jeers: To the Cloquet police department’s over-budget spending. The department has been dealing with serious issues for several years now, from leadership to discipline, and it needs to be fixed. The police are just too important to our community to allow such turmoil, and the recent overspending is just another sign that we need to get the department under control, and soon.

Cheers: To all the wonderful days of summer. There were Esko Fun Days, Brickyard Days, Carlton Daze,

Agate Days, Wrong Days in Wright, July Fourth festivities and more. Each community makes an effort to put on some kind of celebration so community members can simply get together and have a good time. The Carlton County Fair feels like the grandest one of them all, since it is a celebration for the entire county. We hope to see you there. (The Pine Knot News has a booth at this year’s county fair. Come visit with us.)